Parks Tafa changes the BDP Bulela Ditswe game

Publishing Date : 09 October, 2017

Author : AUBREY LUTE

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) chairman of the Electoral Board, Parks Tafa recently landed in the country and he may just change the ball game as far as the party’s primary elections dubbed Bulela Ditswe are concerned.

The BDP legal guru is querying the party’s voters’ roll which is expected to be used at the primary elections. The BDP had scheduled primary elections for opposition held constituencies for 21st October but it is very likely that they could be delayed.
BDP held an emergency central committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the observations made by Parks Tafa. It was one of the rare central committee meetings that President Lt Gen Ian Khama missed. He was in Malta at the time of this meeting.

This publication learns that among some of the points he is raising is the fact that the Public Education and Elections Committee (PEEC) has no powers or legal authority to produce a voters’ roll. Following numerous complaints emanating from the voters’ rolls in the past elections, the BDP had taken a deliberate step to clean up its Bulela Ditswe. However, it appears a few steps were missed when the new dispensation was put into use. Tafa is of the view that if Bulela Ditswe regulations are to be amended then the BDP will need a Special Congress.

What has been happening as part of a calculated move to curb complaints about voters’ rolls, the PEEC had been assisting in registering party members at cell level. In the past names could just be registered at the party head office in Gaborone especially by those seeking to be voted at the primary elections. Most of those who lost the primaries queried the outcome of the primaries on the grounds that the voters’ rolls were doctored or names of potential voters were omitted.

Parks Tafa was not in the country during the BDP National Council and at the Tonota Congress. He is said to have advised that the regulations should have been ratified by congress. As the legal advisor of the party, many in the party fear that his word could become final because there is fear that after rendering such advice those who eventually lose primary elections could use this argument as grounds for appeal.

The party hierarchy is currently wrapping its mind on what steps to take, currently there are only two options – that of a Special Congress or reverting to the controversial old system of compiling voters’ rolls at the Head Office. While there are some candidates who are interested in the case where civil servants had argued their right to vote at BDP primary elections, insiders point out that it is not the biggest concern at the party, instead the procedural conundrum exposed by Parks Tafa is the real “headache”.

REPRIEVE FOR BARRED MOTSAATHEBE

But the news that Parks Tafa is arguing against the current voters’ roll could be music to Fankie Motsaathebe’s ears. Motsaathebe, who is challenging the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Eric Molale in the parliamentary primary elections in the Goodhope/Mabule constituency finds himself in a tight corner as the party alleges that his name does not appear in the current voters’ roll.

This development could mean that Molale is automatically the BDP parliamentary candidate for the constituency on a technicality because Motsaathebe, a favourite had not registered to vote. But Motsaathebe is disputing the allegation and insists that he is in the voters roll because he had registered to vote in the party primary elections. His supporters were alleging that there is a plot to bar him from contesting so as to give Minister Molale a free ride to the 2019 general election.

The Goodhope/Mabule constituency was won by the UDC’s James Mathokgwane in 2014 by 6 712 to the BDP Eric Molale’s 6 101 while Lesego Gatogang of Botswana Congress Party (BCP) only managed 717 votes. Mathokgwane was later to leave the MP position for a lucrative job of Selibe Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU) which prompted the bye election and was won by Lotlaamoreng. Lotlaamoreng accumulated 6 152 votes against Molale’s 4 372, while Comfort Maruping of the BCP got a paltry 385.